Local sides have mixed fortunes

THERE were mixed fortunes for clubs from the Sligo-Leitrim and District Soccer League in last weekend’s provincial competitions.

In the Connacht Football Association’s Men’s Connacht Junior Cup, there were seven Super League clubs involved in the competition’s third round.

There were two all-local ties as Cliffoney Celtic were up against Carbury FC and Cartron United took on Strand Celtic. Cartron won 2-0 against Strand on Saturday night under lights on the plush all-weather surface of MacSharry Park. Steven Patton’s first-half goal, from a Ryan Lynch cross, gave Cartron a 1-0 interval lead and this advantage was doubled after 64 minutes when Josh Gilligan scored.

Ryan Lynch was denied a first-half goal by a fine save from Strand goalkeeper Gerry Murphy and Murphy’s counterpart, Cartron netminder Ronan Gallagher, made a similarly superb stop to deny Daniel Gray Harrigan an equaliser in the opening period. This result puts Cartron into the fourth round (last 16).

Carbury were 7-3 winners over north Sligo’s Cliffoney Celtic at MacSharry last Sunday morning. Malachy Spratt, Gareth Kelly, Mark Hannon, Niall Brennan and Ryan McManus were among the scorers for Carbury, who led 3-0 at half-time. Ryan McManus’ goal came from a spot-kick.

Super League champions MCR FC lost 4-2 away to Ballina Town last Sunday. The Mayo outfit were without feared striker Benny Lavelle as well as Sligo Rovers legend Raffaele Cretaro. Also making their exit last Sunday were Ballisodare United – they lost 5-2 at home to Roscommon’s Moore United. Arrow Harps lost 3-1 away to Galway outfit Athenry FC.

ROUND one fixtures in the Connacht Football Association Men’s Connacht Junior Shield went ahead last weekend and, again, there were more downs than ups from a Sligo-Leitrim perspective.

The only local team to progress to the next